FULL BODY, SUBTLE FLAVOURS:

Veuve Clicquot: Jean-auguste Dominique Ingres

Though undeniably classical in style (citrussy fruit, creamy mousse, rich though not exuberant toast) wines in the Veuve stable have a pulsating, winking allure. Their corseted, pinotpowered sensuality recalls Ingres’ portraits of wealthy 19th-century society hostesses, their dark, glossy locks pulled demurely back, their pale shoulders bare above bodies concealed by swathes of fur, velvet and taffeta.

Philipponnat Clos des Goisses: Jacques-louis David

One of the greatest singlesite wines in Champagne and one of its oldest. A precarious south-facing site yields an unexpectedly orderly wine of rich surfaces, profound scope and perfect proportions. With their masterful modelling and tightly controlled neoclassical structures, the monumental canvases of Jacques-louis David, official court painter of Emperor Napoleon I, feel like an apt match.

Taittinger Comtes de Champagne: James Mcneill Whistler

The rare house run by the family named on the label, Taittinger is hard to pigeonhole: much of its range deliberately combines the robust with the dainty. Twin icons Comtes de Champagne and its rosé counterpart are opposite poles. While the white is defined by Côte des Blancs chardonnay with a rigid spine and formidable poise, the rosé blends mostly Montagne de Reims pinot with a dash of skinny chardonnay: initially plump, cascading and sensuous, it leaves the impression of icy reserve, much like Whistler’s Symphony in Flesh Color and Pink.

Georges Laval: Paul Cézanne

The much-admired organic grower Vincent Laval makes sapid, bone-dry wines of great character and self-assurance. Sometimes heavy on the greyish “crack” aromas (hot steel, fusel oil), there is a solidity of structure and a confident modulation of flavours and textures that seem at one with Cézanne’s methods. The way the post-impressionist master would feel out his still lifes, landscapes, or figures in search of a deeply subjective truth rhymes with Laval’s imperfectly perfect, individualistic wines.